GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND BOMBAY : 53, ESPLANADE ROAD CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & co. GEORGE BERKELEY, D.D. BISHOP OF CLOYNE EDITED BY GEORGE SAMPSON WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION BY I PREFACE. T has been stated that the aim of this edition of Berkeley is to present a complete and accurate text with as little editorial matter as possible. One work, however, contained in this volume seemed to require special treatment. In "Alciphron" Berkeley has exhibited all the phases of contemporary religious criticism in the persons of the two infidel interlocutors; and thus allusions to well-known books and characters of the time are full and frequent. The editor has endeavoured to explain the allusions as briefly as possible, by an introductory note where the motif of any dialogue is drawn chiefly from particular works or persons; or by references in footnotes where the allusions are more casual. Were the books or persons referred to directly, this would be unnecessary; and the editor begs those who may think his notes too many or too much to consider that without some explanation certain paragraphs-such, for instance, as the third section of the fifth dialogue-must seem rather forcibly dragged in. It must be said, however, that the occasional obscurity of allusion does not in any way lessen the charm of a most engaging work; though a deeper study can only fill one with admiration of the consummate art which could combine materials so dull and so intractable into a work so brilliant and so elegant. Attention may be drawn to the fact that the text of Berkeley's final edition of "Alciphron" (1752) is reprinted here completely for the first time in an English edition. Professor Fraser mentions many of the peculiarities of that text in an appendix to his edition (1871); but a fair number of alterations were unremarked. The editor wishes to thank Mr. Strickland, of the Dublin National Gallery, for calling his attention to a replica there of Smibert's portrait (now at Yale) of the Rhode Island family group, and for his assistance in its reproduction here. The picture has been engraved by Messrs. Walker and Boutall, to whom thanks are also due. |